Tyler Seguin didn’t just bring the Stanley Cup to Toronto on Sunday, he brought the hope that dreams can come true.

Tyler Seguin makes a face as he tries to, carefully, put the Stanley Cup down on a table at Westwood Arena where the young Boston Bruin star played minor hockey with the Toronto Nationals.

By:Paul HunterSports Reporter, Published on Sun Jul 31 2011

Tyler Seguin didn’t just bring the Stanley Cup to Toronto on Sunday, he brought the hope that dreams, even seemingly impossible ones, can come true.

Just three seasons removed from being one of those sweaty-haired kids whose hockey bags routinely turn the lobby of north Etobicoke’s Westwood Arena into an obstacle course for parents, there was Seguin set up in that same foyer, the freshly polished Stanley Cup on a table beside him.

Snaking through the corridor and out into the parking lot, mixed with the autograph-seeking fans, was the next generation of players, young but not much younger than the still-teenaged Seguin, standing in line with wide-eyed reverence waiting to pose for a picture with the Bruins star.

This was Seguin’s home rink when he played his last seasons of youth hockey with the Toronto Nationals. Now, after it seemed like he’d only just left, he was back in the role of conquering hero, a championship with Boston on his resume after just one NHL season.

“It just sort of means that anything is possible,” said Jonathan Sharir-Smith, a 12-year-old from the Nats’ peewee squad, after his time with Seguin.

“The guy is only 19 and he played in our organization, so seven years from now, anything is possible. It’s not that far away.”

The odds of getting to the NHL are, of course, prohibitively long, even for a AAA player in the demanding GTHL. But, in a far-fetched daily double, a Seguin teammate on his minor-midget Nationals team was Jeff Skinner, last season’s Calder Trophy winner from the Carolina Hurricanes.

And this was indeed a day to celebrate possibilities. Seguin could have done anything he pleased during his day with the Cup but that he squeezed in a couple of hours to honour his hockey roots suggests he’s stayed grounded despite his sudden success. That he was handling his newly-minted role model status with grace was something not lost on the adults in the mix.

“It’s certainly not going to happen for everybody and it’ll only happen for a very, very few but every kid that plays hockey at this age has the dream of doing just what Tyler did, lifting the Stanley Cup,” said Joe Latham, coach of that peewee Nats squad.

“The fact that he would choose his one day with the Cup to come back here and share with a bunch of kids he doesn’t know but are from his organization, helps to make that dream a little closer and a little bit more real. It helps to feed the dream in the kids. I think it’s a great inspiration.”

Seguin, himself, plays down the thought that he is any kind of hockey Pied Piper, though he did seem to delight in questioning whether kids arriving for their photo op really want to touch the Cup and take the chance of jinxing their own possibility of winning it one day.

Afterwards, he recalled being the kid in line himself in 2001 when Colorado’s Adam Foote had the Stanley Cup at Whitby’s Iroquois Park much to the delight of a 9-year-old Seguin coming off the floor from a lacrosse game.

“I went out to take a picture and I wouldn’t touch it. I was 9 and I was like, I want to win it one day, I wouldn’t touch it,” he said.

Now that he can get his paws all over it, Seguin started his day by taking the trophy to the Hospital for Sick Children. He then hustled out to his hometown of Brampton where about 5,000 fans were on hand as he was honoured by the city.

The forward then spent two hours at the unadvertised event at Westwood where 379 people got pictures and autographs — including one fellow who had photocopied evidence to prove (now signed by Seguin) that one of his young sons had the middle name Boston, the other Bruin — and then it was home to a pig roast where 300 of his closest friends and family members wore Seguin’s “First” Stanley Cup barbeque T-shirts. Seguin then cranked things up by hosting a Stanley Cup party at the Embassy Club in downtown Toronto.

So why squeeze in a couple of hours at his childhood rink?

“I just thought, growing up, I wanted to see the Stanley Cup somewhere around here so I thought why not bring it back here?” he said.

“If I am (an inspiration), that’s definitely a great honour. Some kids have said that. It definitely makes you feel good.”

Paul Seguin, Tyler’s father, said it was so important for his son to bring the trophy back to where he first imagined playing in the NHL. He said Tyler wanted others, especially the kids, to share that Stanley Cup dream.

“You should never stop dreaming, no matter what age you are,” said the elder Seguin. “That’s what keeps us alive.”

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.